Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Thursday's Winds of War briefings are given by me, Colt, of Eurabian Times.
TOP TOPICS
- A UAE paper claims that U.S. troops are massing near the Syrian border.
- Iran has been using plutonium for years. They also recieved technology for a weapons program - both things happened much earlier than Tehran had previously admitted.
- The Khadr saga has a good moment: the Mounties have found a cache of information on Zaynab Khadr's laptop.
Other Topics Today Include: North Korea to build missile bunkers in Iran; al-Adel in Iran; Syria takes out 'terror cell'; U.S. and Turkey part ways?; child-recruiting Fatah men arrested; Israel predicts more terror from Gaza; PA to collapse; Douglas Wood freed by Iraqi SF; carbomb-maker caught; IAEA tells KSA to cooperate; Congress considers KSA arms ban; Lebanese man given 4 1/2 years for aiding Hezbollah; Mexico ignoring AQ?; Yarkas took metro with Atta; Muslim migrants oppose Dutch gov't immigration/integration plans; Spanish police net 16; Danes abuse anti-terror laws; Uzbekistan airbases less necessary; Taliban commander caught; Thai Buddhist beheaded by Muslims; U.S. exercises in North Africa; and much more.
IRAN
- Half of the candidates for Iran's presidency are Pasdaran or Revolutionary Guard veterans.
THE MIDDLE EAST
- Syria has clashed with an Islamic terror cell. (Don't roll your eyes.) Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat reports that the group was the same one that killed Rafik Hariri. (Okay, you can roll them now.)
- Syria has a new political party, promoting 'free market reforms and middle class values'.
- Has the U.S.-Turkey strategic relationship come to an end? So it would seem.
- One candidate for the Egyptian presidency was convicted of conspiring to kill Anwar Sadat.
- A terror cell in Nablus has been broken up by Israeli forces. The Fatah Tanzim 'men' had recruited children to blow up Israelis. Unfortunately, they were taken alive.
- Israeli forces have recoverd bags of explosives, after arresting several PIJ terrorists.
- The Israeli government has distributed a pamphlet to towns and schools in the Negev desert is predicting more acts of terrorism mounted from Gaza after the withdrawal.
- The PA is preparing to collapse.
IRAQ AND THE GULF
- The Carnival of the Liberated - the Kandahar mosque attack may not have been a suicide bombing, an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982, and Operation Lightning.
- Aussie hostage Douglas Wood has been freed by Iraq special forces. Alas, five bodies were discovered in the hideout. The terrorists on the scene were taken in to custody.
- Bill Roggio on Training the Iraqi Army.
- The IAEA is telling Saudi Arabia to co-operate with inspections.
THE AMERICAS
- Congress is considering an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia. That's single-sourced for now.
- One of the men jailed in the U.K. for plotting to blow up the Citigroup building says the glass was intended to become flying piece(s) of cutthroat shrapnel.
- Suspected mall-bombing plotter Nuradin Abdi's lawyer says his rights were violated.
- A Lebanese man has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years for aiding Hezbollah.
- The CIA and FBI have reached a new agreement on how they co-ordinate intelligence activities.
EUROPE
- A witness in the trial of Barakat Yarkas says he saw him on the Barcelona metro with Mohammed Atta.
- French agents are holding two men believed to be involved in the 3/11 bombings.
- Arab and Turkish immigrants in Holland are to protest against government plans to limit immigration and promote integration.
- Spanish police have arrested 16 for terrorism - 11 for involvement with Zarqawi, and 5 for involvement in 3/11.
- The Romanian press says the Ceausescu network played a big role in the release for French journalist Florence Aubenas. Or maybe it was that 'maverick' Didier Julia, who had close connections with Saddam's regime. Or maybe the French paid a ransom.
- A Muslim man is on trial in Belgium for threatening a Jewish man with a knife and threatening to kill every Jew.
- Albanian leaders in Kosovo say their goal is still independence.
- Via Discarded Lies, a rather questionable use of anti-terror laws - tackling Greenpeace hanging a banner...
ASIA & AUSTRALASIA
- Restrictions from the Uzbek government are leading the U.S. to remove air assets from Uzbek airbases. I sure hope that wasn't the only reason, and I'd guess from the timing that it isn't (thanks to Joe for the link).
- Afghan forces have captured a Taliban commander believered responsible for the recent suicide bombing in a Kandahar mosque.
- The connections between jihadis in Singapore and India - numerous, amazingly enough.
- A Buddhist man has been beheaded in southern Thailand. The murderers left a note, which said they did it because the police had arrested the wrong man.
AFRICA
- An Algerian army patrol has been ambushed. Three soldiers and a civilian were killed.
Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.
You forgot this item: Dutch police have arrested two men of Iraqi ancestry on allegations they are members of a terrorist network, one of whom was allegedly involved in aiding the Iraqi resistance against US troops.
Full article
One in four captured foreign jihadis in Iraq are from sub-Saharan Africa.
As believable as Hollywood movies in which the Allies use black men to infiltrate Nazi occupied Europe.
(it also could be true but the situation of the US is than even worse than i believe)
So I did. Thanks.
I am inclined to say: of course the French paid a ransom for the release of Florence Aubenas. The kidnapping of lefty journalists sympathetic to the "resistance" and their release against cash is evidently becoming a major source of financing for the Baathist-Jihadi alliance in Iraq. The number being tossed around in connection with Aubenas is $15 million. I've written about it in “More Euros for Terror?” as well as a follow up here. There are also serious questions about Aubenas's Iraqi "guide" and supposed fellow hostage Hussein Hanoun, who evidently has connections to "insurgent" groups in Iraq. The man does not hide his sympathies. The AFP report you cite (AFP is owned by the French state and anything it publishes, especially on the the doings of the French government, should be taken with a substantial grain of salt) left out the following gem from Hussein Hanoun's interview with Le Monde: speaking of his own alleged captors, he says, “They were very, very nice to me during the whole time we were held captive. You understand: they are Islamist Iraqi patriots....” It is particularly interesting that Hanoun would say they were so "nice", since Aubenas claims that she was held in the same cellar as Hanoun and that when the guards once believed they were trying to talk, they got a beating. Is that "nice"?
#4 John Rosenthal
I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if the whole thing was staged. Thanks for the additional information.
Oh, would that it were true, our troops actually massing on the Syrian border, in preparation for a raid on "insurgent" camps.
And as far as the Saudis, and others, have concerns about us taking preemptive action against such enclaves, I'd tell them to go(in politically correct terms... ) pass water and make it flow up a stout cord of strands twisted together.
Just my $.02
DRK
Im willing to bet Iran is significantly farther along in their nuke program than we think. Why? The CIA estimates them at a couple of years out. No we all know that whatever the CIA thinks is catastrophically wrong, meaning that either Iran is many years away, or much less. Having been so wrong on Iraq in the one direction, symmetry strongly suggests they are radically underestimating Irans WMD program. Now I defy anyone to argue with that logic!
"Saudi police have shot and arrested a man acting suspiciously... "
But not necessarilly in that order.
"Read the whole goddamn thing - I put a lot of work in to it."
It takes time. I'm constantly amazed people can comment so much and so quickly. Of course some just talk without first having read the thread and looked at the information linked, but others obviously do read first, and think, and can chat our ears off. It can't be easy.
At the moment though: "Has the U.S.-Turkey strategic relationship come to an end?" Not till I hear a lot more than that.
David, I nearly posted a link about how Turkey was to be the guest of honour (and only non-Arab guest at that) at an Arab economic forum. There have been lots of snippets about Turkey increasing ties with the Arab world here and there. The strategic relationship may not be over, but I suspect it is heading in that direction.
Here's that link I was talking about previously: ARAB ECONOMIC FORUM - NON-ARAB TURKEY GUEST OF HONOUR.
Damn. Looks like the comments problem with the main page and long URLs is NOT fixed.
Anyway, take note of Turkey's footsie with Pakistan, as well.
Three arrested in Germany as well this week.
3 Terror Suspects Arrested in Germany
>>Russian troops have killed a Chechen gunman
I'd like to point out a small factual error: according to news reports, the gunman who was killed in Makhachkala was not a Chechen, but a Dagestani, like the others who took part in the siege.